bell123321

Those pictures are giving me itchy feet to get over there again! I love the views from Kings Park over the city. When you move over there you must make a trip to Rottnest Island one of my favourite places no cars, cute quokkas and amazing beaches. I am off over to Sydney in April to see a friend who recently had a baby. First time I haven't gone over to Perth whilst visiting Australia. OH family live in Perth so we will be back over again in maybe 18 months (Unless immigrating looks close at that point then we will hold off and save the pounds for Visa's etc). The next 12 months will fly by!

Fantastic post thank you. I have only visited Perth and Sydney but had always wondered about Adelaide so was interesting to read your comments. How long now till you think you can move over there? We have family in Perth and keep going back to visit and always seem to find things to do. You managed to do loads in that one week in Perth! Was really shocked by the wine and beer prices both in Perth and in Birmingham! When we go out for a wine and beer it costs us £5-£8. We didn't really drink out in restaurants in Perth or Sydney as we went to the liquor store on a few occasions and brought a bottle of wine, which we felt was a tad more then UK but when you work it out relatively to wages didn't seem to bad. I imagine its hard not to compare to UK prices until your earning over there.

Hope you dont have to much longer to save :-) Best of luck on your move exciting times !!

Just to add my input:

2010 Flew Heathrow to Perth with Royal Brunei leaving end of October returning end of November that cost us only £550 each return.

2012 Flew Heathrow to Sydney with Malaysia airlines left in January. However we got our return flights to leave from Perth back to Heathrow coming back end of February that cost us £880 each return

2012 Flew Heathrow to Auckland with Malaysia airlines leaving in November that cost £600 but was a single ticket

2015 Just booked flight Heathrow to Sydney for April with Emirates and that has cost me £730 return.

I'm due four weeks today. :chatterbox:

Wow that's come around quickly! Hope it's going okay know it's tough the last four weeks. Bet your excited!

How would you vote if you were lucky enough to be a scot? :laugh:

To be honest I haven't read enough to make a proper decision but I'd probably vote no. My friend lives in Scotland and she gets free eye tests etc which we don't get in England. I'm not sure how long the extra benefits people in Scotland would last without increasing the amount of tax you pay. If it's working why change. But like I said without reading enough I can't make a proper decision. I just know if it's a yes and things turn bad there is no going back

Avoid Cathy Pacific. While the staff were great, terrible, old, dilapidated planes. Would never fly with them again. Seriously scary.

 

I've flown with Cathy Pacific, Qantas and Emirates. Emirates where outstanding. I would choose the Arab airlines Emirates and Etihad first.

Thanks for the tip, at the moment the affordable flights I have been looking at are qantas, Emirates or Cathy Pacific. I was thinking about Cathy as I prefer not to stop at Dubai and would rather stop in Asia.

Though not travelling with little ones, I would say Singapore or maybe airlines that go via Singapore, because the airport facilities there are excellent for the short layovers in changing planes. Other than that I have had no real problems with Cathay, Malaysian, Thai, Finair, Swissair, the only sort of problem I had was with Singapore airlines with a delayed flight meaning missed connection, but the way the looked after us was really good. All the above from what I have seen have looked after the passengers with young children, never witnessed anybody getting upset with attendants.

Have not flown Emirates or Etihad as yet so can not really comment other than my parents have and was ok for them, we avoid flying BA or Qantas again.

As I have no real preference to any single airline then it is price which drives me initially, then timings, will always pay a little more (but not $100's) if timings are more to my liking, and then plane/seating type.

May I ask why you wouldn't fly Ba or qantas? Just looking for flights myself :-)

If you mean working holiday visa then unfortunately he won't be able to apply for this as he has a dependent. I would imagine partner visa would be the one to apply for?sorry can't be of anymore help

Aww they are so cute, they actually look like they are smiling lol. the whole no car thing sounds like herm too. Maybe I'll like it even more! Is it worth staying over there for a night or do people just go for the day?

If we could have we would have stayed for a weekend (Think thats enough to be honest especially if you hire a bike) as it would have been beautiful to watch the sun go down. There is a hotel but there are other accommodation such as little apartments. (Think the hotel is expensive) there is a central place which has a mini mark and restaurants and take away but it is easy to bring food over from mainland beforehand to keep costs down. I am convinced the quokka smiles its like a mini kangaroo kinda.

Rottnest was definitely on the list, I've known about that place for a long time. I definitely want a picture of me with one of those quokkas lol they look so cute!

 

I know this sounds stupid but I've always really wanted to go and see the red dog statue

I have a pic of me and a Quokka but its not a great picture so instead here is one trying to say hello to me:

First time I went Perth ended up visiting Rottnest twice as we loved it so much. They dont have cars on the island so the second time we hired out bicycle and cycled around the island which was cool. Also remember playing crazy golf and swimming in the this sea.

Really wish I was going back to Perth now!

If your in Perth visit Fremantle and Rottnest Island. On Rottnest island they have quokkas which there are not many places you can see them. Also the beaches are amazing on the island. Also if you can pop up to Monkey Mia on the way see the pinnacles which is within the Nambung National park. They are limestone formations which are pretty cool.

If you go Sydney I would recommend a weekend or so in the Blue Mountines and take a visit to jenolan caves. I stayed in a log style cabin when I went which was pretty cool.

Poor things ;( saw it last night on twitter can not believe at 14 year old is responsible for this! I dont care if they are a minor if they are doing this at 14 imagine what actions they will be doing in a few years. Those poor dogs so good that the general public have been offering support. Nearly half a million has now been raised!

Thanks all, have also found flights with qantas for £30 more (still via dubai). Can't find any reasonable priced sinapore airline flights. Is there much difference between emirates and qantas (I know they code share and it's the same route). Unfortunately can't seem to find any reasonable priced flights via aisa with airlines I've heard of, as I'd prefer a stop in aisa as it's pretty much half way unlike dubai.

Thank you everyone for your replies

I have only flown with Malaysia airlines previously and Royal Brunei (But they don't fly to Sydney), I will see if there are other airlines that are reasonable priced (Under £900 return for one, Emirates was coming at £740 from gatwick) but I don't mind paying more for a better route/airline. I have gone through Dubai once with Brunei but Lady Rainicorn has just reminded me on how strict they are (Forgot about that guy with the poppy seeds).

Hi all

I just wondered what people's experiences of flying with Emirates were? I have been looking online and mostly can only see bad comments about staff being rude. Also wondered if anybody had used the wi fi they provide and if so how much was it? Looking at going over to Sydney just after Easter and Emirates after vietnam airlines is coming out cheapest.

Thanks in advance

Well I do agree that it should be easy for your husband to get a UK partner visa or whatever it I called considering a Scottish wife and three children. But why was it hard in 2009? I know it has got hard recently but don't remember it was hard before. And why did you take the children and leave?

 

Why not make the decision together, get the necessary visa in place and then make these move as a family. Rather than fragment your family. You are putting yourself through unnecessary pain, nobody else is. I would not dream of moving anywhere ahead of my husband, we don't even have children but we move together or we don't move at all. Maybe try that approach next time.

I am not 100% sure but I think with getting a UK partner visa the sponsoring partner needs to have a wage of £18k or more if children are involved before they can get a partner visa for their partner, as well as proving you have suitable accommodation. I am assuming with last attempt the OP was trying to met those two requirements before they could get a partner visa to allow her partner to move?

If you can provide it then maybe provide it? I guess its just being patient. Sure everything will be fine but can imagine the waiting is horrible.

I had to find out the same answer for my boss when booking his airline ticket. I just rang the airline and they said it was fine but to be on safe side pay for extra luggage allowance and it went in the hold.

Sorry wish I could offer advice but think it may be worth you having an initial chat with a migration advisor as it seems it may be complicated.

Hopefully someone else will be able to offer a better answer.

Sorry to hear about your news chicken. It is good you do not have to wait long for the operation and hopefully soon your be hearing good news. All the best for next week, you have made a hard decision but a good decision. Vent as much as you like on here, it is always easier to do that to people who don't know you face to face as your get honest opinions and support. Stay strong and keep us updated xx

I have flown with them 4 times before, and this latest incident is not their fault. However I may leave it a year or so before I fly with them. I know it is not their fault but I am a nervous flyer anyway and two incidents in one year is off putting. I know it could have happened to any of the airlines in that airspace at that particular time, so I know my reasons aren't rational but it is just how I feel.

I'm not a city person and I love the outback. Personally I couldn't live in Melbourne again, don't get me wrong its beautiful compared to where we were in the UK but there are so many more beautiful places in Australia. There is something for everyone in Aus and that's what I love about it.

I love Cairns and Darwin but I know its not everyone's cup of tea. At the minute I think its freezing (26 degrees) yet I have family here visiting who say its too hot. Thankfully we are all different.

I can relate to that, when we were in Sydney it went to 22c one day and my friend who lives there had a jumper on. In the UK everyone is out in shorts when it hits 17c lol. I do like the warm weather. I guess you get kinda used to what it normally is and if 26 degrees is low where you live your feel colder.

I would consider anywhere to start with as we can always move at another time. However as a permanent area we wouldn't want to live either the outback of Darwin. With Darwin it would be the humidity and all the crocs and jellyfish :-p and the outback is to isolated for me. But we would always be happy to give somewhere a try.

Have only read first page but we generally only save when we are saving for something specific which is normally holidays to Australia as it takes a while to save for that. My partner saves a pension with his current work place as they put in same amount as he does, but its not that much each month. I don't have a pension, I do think about it but think I may not even be around at that point. Also think the pension might be worth nothing anyway or might vanish. I Know that probably sounds silly but I am a live for each day and only save for something bigger if it is going to bring me happiness. Maybe not the right attitude but hey.

I would second what Ozmaniac has said and let it expire and then re-apply. That way you wont get into any bother later on.